


Friends in low Places

by levele3



Series: Strange Magic Week 2017 [3]
Category: Strange Magic (2015)
Genre: F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Gen, Strange Magic week, fake exes, wedding crashers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-23
Updated: 2017-08-23
Packaged: 2018-12-19 01:47:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11887332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/levele3/pseuds/levele3
Summary: Strange Magic Week- Day 3: Fake ExesMarianne and Bog are part-time wedding crashers, and as two people both opposed to love, it would be highly embarrassing if any of their friends or family found out. So what are they to do when they run into each other at an important dinner party? Pretend to be exes of course!





	Friends in low Places

Strange Magic Week- Day 3: Fake Exes

Bog made his way through the crowd, nodding here, smiling there, stopping at every odd person to thank them for coming tonight. It was awful. Exchanging his empty glass of champagne for a full one Bog made his way to the nearest corner in hopes of grabbing a few quite moments to himself. 

 _I can’t believe I cancelled on Marianne for this_ , he thought as he rubbed at his temples. 

Bog had spent most of his night trying not to think of the brunette who had stolen his heart, but it was proving difficult. Marianne seemed to be taking up more and more of his thoughts every day.

 “Damn woman owes me rent for spending so much time up there” Bog mumbled to himself.

He leaned back into his corner and closed his eyes, taking a refreshing sip of the bubbly liquid. The champagne tickled his nose before sliding down his throat leaving him feeling light headed. Bog usually drank something a little stronger but hard liquor just wasn’t on offer at these fancy banquets his mother always attended. 

Of course she dragged Bog along every chance she got, introducing him to _all_ the eligible women and some who weren’t. Bog did a quick glance around the room to make sure his mother wasn’t nearby before sliding his mobile out of suit pants pocket.

 _*no new messages*_ his phone read, damn! Bog had been hoping Marianne would text him tonight with an emergency, but so far nothing. _Why should she?_ he thought, he was the one who had cancelled on her after all.

Just thinking about her made him smile. If Bog just closed his eyes and concentrated he thought he could almost hear her voice now. 

“Dawn, Dawn, stop, please!”

Bog’s eyes sprung open in time to see a blonde woman marching towards him, Marianne jogging after her. Both women were in heels but that didn’t seem to be slowing them down any. The blonde’s face was scrunched up with a look of serious determination. He gulped, not knowing what to do, he looked side-to-side only to realise there was no exit, he had literally backed himself into a corner. Bog wedged a finger between his neck and tie trying to loosen it some. He couldn’t breathe.  

***

Marianne couldn’t believe Bog had cancelled on her this weekend and now she was forced to go to this stupid party with her sister. 

Marianne finished applying her dark purple lipstick and _smacked_ her lips together. Satisfied with the result she nodded to her reflection and headed out the door.

“You’re wearing that?” Dawn asked looking over her sister’s outfit choice for the evening.

“Yes” Marianne said firmly, “I am.”

“Okay” Dawn interjected, “good luck getting asked to dance.”

“I’m not dancing” Marianne said a little defensively. 

Honestly, did Dawn really think that dig was going to hurt her feelings? Marianne didn’t choose what to wear based on who was going to see her and she certainly hadn’t spent ages on her make-up to look good for anybody else. Putting on make-up was therapeutic for Marianne; she saw her face as a blank canvas and took great care in painting it. 

Besides, there was really only one person she would even consider dancing with and he wasn’t going to be there tonight.   

Marianne made her way around the party smiling politely anytime someone called her name. She made an effort to make small talk with a few clients of her father’s and wasn’t having an overall awful time. She was just checking her phone to see if she might have missed a text from Bog when her sister bounded up beside her, startling the daylights out of her.   

“So, are you having a good time?” Dawn asked, cheerful as ever.

“Geeze Dawn, don’t scare me like that” Marianne placed her hand over her pounding heart.

Marianne looked around the room to see if anyone had noticed her little jump-scare but no one seemed to be looking at the sisters. Marianne’s eyes roamed over a far dark corner, then back again. No. Nononono, he could not be here, this was not good.

As much as Marianne had spent the majority of the night wishing she was somewhere else with Bog instead of stuck at this party, finding Bog at the party did nothing to fix this. No one could know they knew each other. Bog and Marianne hadn’t meet under conventional circumstances and both would be beyond mortified if either of their friends or family found out how the two usually spent their time together.  

Dawn was a quick study in body language though and noticed how still Marianne had become, frozen in shock really. Dawn followed her sister’s line of sight to a dark corner where she could just make out the form of a rather tall and thin man.

“Do you know him?” Dawn asked excitedly. She had drunk two glasses of champagne in quick succession and was now beginning to feel the effects.

It was an innocent enough question but Marianne didn’t reply right away.

Dawn waved her hand in front of her sister’s eyes, “Earth to Marianne.”

Just as fast as she had zoned out Marianne snapped out of it, and grabbed her sister’s shoulders, “you drive me crazy” she said, giving Dawn a gentle shake before kissing her forehead.  

“That’s great, but you didn’t answer my question. Do you know him?” Dawn repeated, pointing to the shadowy corner.

Unable to tell the truth for fear of worse repercussions Marianne told her sister a lie.

“Uhh, yeah, he ah, I umm, we used to date” Marianne lied.  

Dawn’s eye had nearly bugged out of her head and then the questions started.  “What! When? How? I thought I met all the guys you dated?”

Marianne began to wonder if telling the truth might not have been so bad after all.

“We didn’t date, _date_ ” Marianne tried to explain, digging herself farther into the rabbit hole she was creating. 

“You know” she shrugged, trying to act casual, “we went out a few times, dinner, some karaoke.” That last part wasn’t exactly a lie Marianne thought.

“It just didn’t work out between us.” Marianne chewed at her lower lip but kept glancing at the corner where Bog still stood, the light from his cellphone illuminating his face in its eerie glow.   

She really loved just looking at his face sometimes; it was all sharp angles, highlights and shadow, and lips that just begged to be kissed.

“Oh, I see” Dawn said, not really seeing at all. “He ended things but you still like him.”

“What? No!” Marianne protested.

“You do!!” Dawn sang, bouncing excitedly.

“He looks pretty lonely” Dawn lamented, “maybe he would like some company. Come on, we should go say hi, maybe he’ll see how hot you look tonight and want to start seeing you again?”

“Dawn, Dawn stop! Please!”

***

The first time Marianne Faye saw Bog King was ironically at a wedding. The ceremony had been for one of her father’s most important clients and he had brought Marianne along as his plus-one. The idea of going to a weeding so soon after her own failed attempt at hitching the knot made her sick. She had begged for him to take Dawn instead who was more into “all this romantic crap” as Marianne had put it so eloquently at the time.  

“It’s not about romance” her father had argued, “it’s just good business.”  

The ceremony itself had gone off without a hitch, although Marianne had found the time dragged. Had she really been going to subject herself to this? The reception was held in an elegantly decorated ballroom at the most expensive hotel in the city. Marianne felt out of place in her gown of dark purple among the pastels.

The meal was over and the last of the speeches were wrapping up when Marianne leaned close to her father and whispered, “How soon can we leave?”

Roy Faye looked at her aghast, “don’t you at least have time for one quick dance with your father?” he asked. It was so hard watching both his little girls grow up. They were of course everything he and their mother had hoped for, strong, gracious, independent (maybe a little too independent), Roy lamented at the thought of his youngest daughter and her weekly, if not daily crushes.  

Marianne gave him one of her genuine smiles and softened her glare, “okay dad, one dance and then we split.”

Roy gave a hearty chuckle at his eldest daughters’ spunk; she had got that from her mother.

Just as the best man was at last sitting down from his long, and no doubt drawn out anecdote, Marianne had zoned out after half a minute, the ballroom doors slammed open and in strode a tall, dark stranger.

 Marianne shivered at the slight breeze that followed the man into the room and watched as he stomped his way up to the head table, right up to the bride! He was dressed head to toe in black leather. Studded motorcycle boots graced his feet and he wore ridding chaps over black denim jeans. He could not have looked more out of place amid the muted pinks and primroses if he had walked in naked.

The whole room held it’s breathe as the newcomer lifted the groom’s glass of champagne. One of the groomsmen jumped to his feet but his friend held him back. The stranger gave a nod of thanks to the groom before launching into a slurred speech about how he had been in love with the bride once and she had rejected him. He didn’t need a microphone, his voice rose naturally to be heard by the captive audience. Marianne’s heart panged in sympathy for the stranger but maybe this wasn’t the best idea. As he finished delivering his speech he clinked the glass he held with the brides and downed the contents before setting it back down. 

That was when two big men, obviously members of the hotel’s security detail, showed up and dragged the man from the room by his arms. He was still shouting about how he had been wronged by the bride, mistreated and led on.   

Marianne didn’t know what made her do it but she was suddenly scrapping her chair back and running from the room, headless to her father calling her name. Marianne was pleased to find the man hadn’t gone too far, as drunk as he was it would be dangerous for him to wander off alone.

Now that she was here Marianne was unsure what to do. She sighed the sigh of the heavy hearted before sitting down on the dirty sidewalk next to him.

“I know all about getting your heart broken” she opened.

He turned to look at her, his bright blue eyes catching the light, but they were foggy with drink. He took a moment to appraise her.

“You?” he asked unbelieving.

“Yeah, I almost married someone who didn’t love me” she admitted for the first time out loud.

“Why?” he asked, swaying slightly.

Marianne thought back, why had she loved Roland so much? She didn’t even know anymore.

“I guess because he was _soo_ good looking” she said rolling her eyes.  

Her voice hardened, “I just couldn’t see he was nothing but a shallow, power hungry, cheating son-of-a-”

“Woah there tough girl, I get it” the man interjected.

“Love” she scoffed, “nothing but trouble.”

“Fools, the lot of them” he agreed. 

He turned back to stare at a spot on the ground, his eyes getting a faraway look in them, “I have to go to a wedding next weekend” he confessed.

Marianne got what at the time she thought was a brilliant idea.

“Tell me where and when and I can show up and crash it for you.”

That was how it started, how Marianne and Bog became wedding crashers. Showing up uninvited the two would then make a spectacle of themselves, often bringing life to otherwise dull, regal, or formal weddings.  

Bog would pretend to hit on a bridesmaid, the bride, or on one memorable occasion the groom. Marianne would then pretend to be his girlfriend, depending on the day she would either throw a fit and “break-up” with him on the spot, or attempt to convince the intended in joining them in a threesome. Marianne didn’t know what would happen if someone actually agreed to it, they had never got that far, thank goodness. Although, as much as Marianne loved the fine figure Bog cut in a suit, she was beginning to wonder what he’d look like out of one.

They often stole the show, each taking turns to jump up on stage and sing along with whatever the band was playing. Everybody loved them and by then end of the night most people were begging them to come to the next family reunion. 

The last wedding they were at though, things had gotten a little carried away. After a particularly amazing break dancing display by Bog, the band had slowed it down some. The next song had seen Marianne and Bog slow dancing, entwined in each other’s embrace.  

Marianne had closed her eyes and let the music wash over her, Bog whisper-singing the lyrics to Aerosmith’s _I don’t want to miss a thing_ , into her ear. His voice was deep and rough and being in his arms like that made her feel safe. She began thinking about how nice it might be to kiss him, things she usually only thought about when she lay in bed trying to fall asleep. As the song ended Marianne didn’t even think about it, she just tilted her head up ever so slightly and the next thing she knew, she was kissing him!

Then he was kissing her back, and holy hell could he kiss! Marianne’s toes curled in her shoes as Bog stole the breath from her and her heart began beating at a frantic pace. She couldn’t say how long they kissed for, only breaking apart completely when the crowd began cheering and whistling loudly at their public display. Marianne had made a quick exit after that leaving poor Bog alone to deal with the crowd.  

***  

As Marianne got closer Bog took a moment to appreciate her outfit. He had seen her in long and short dresses of every colour but nothing compared to what she was wearing tonight.

Marianne was dressed in black dress pants, a white shirt and a black blazer, tapping into a kink Bog didn’t know he had until now, women in suits. She had on purple heeled shoes that matched her lipstick and even had a silky purple necktie on. He just knew this vision was going to revisit him again later tonight.

“How dare you break my sister’s heart like that” the blonde accused, wagging a finger in Bog’s face and snapping him out of his trance.

“What?” he growled, looking back and forth between the two sisters.

Marianne was signing at him not to say anything contradictory and he realised she must have lied to her sister about how she knew him. Which he was thankful for. If word got back to his mother that he went to weddings, with a beautiful woman, for fun, she’d have him committed.

**Author's Note:**

> This one kind of got away from me, sorry. I had too many ideas and couldn't get them all out coherently. I might rework this at some point and not leave it as such an awkward cliffhanger. I hope you get the gist of it.


End file.
